1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a Hub Conditioning and Alignment Tool for use as a hand tool in connection with model cars. The Hub Conditioning and Alignment Tool has particular utility for finishing the hubs of wheels.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As winter loosens its grip, children emerge from homes across the land for a contest: the Pinewood Derby®. For the derby, children and their adult sponsors assemble a wooden car from a kit and then race their cars against those of fellow children upon a track. Children that win local races advance to tournaments. As a car race, speed remains essential to victory and fractions of a second count. Children and sponsors seek to minimize wheel friction and align wheels precisely at each opportunity. The wooden cars have four wheels. Each plastic wheel has a finished face, a rim, and a centered hub opposite the finished face. The hub fits over an axle hammered into the car. Spinning upon the axle, the hub contacts the car.
A unique aspect of the present invention is squaring the hub manually with few power tools. Squaring orients the hub perpendicular to the axis of rotation of the wheel. Prior art designs squared the hub in a lathe or a drill. A sponsor would install the wheel in a lathe, rotate the hub, and apply a tool to square the hub. Then to reduce the contact area between the hub and a car, a conventional design requires a sponsor to trim the hub manually with a knife also known as coning. Because of lathe tools and a manually trimmed hub, children had less involvement in fine-tuning their cars and slower cars. In summary, prior art requires power tools handled by sponsors while children sat out the fine-tuning of their cars for speed.
The difficulty in providing squared and coned hubs by children is shown by the operation of a typical device. From the factory, hubs have burrs and slight imperfections. Installed upon a lathe, an as delivered hub will cause the wheel to rotate out of round. Tools applied to such a wheel will alter the rim, increase friction between the wheel and the track, and reduce the speed of a car. Typically, sponsors and children remove burrs and square the hub by hand with a sanding block. Such a manual method may not accurately square the hub. The present invention overcomes this difficulty.
The present art overcomes the limitations of the prior art. Hub Conditioning and Alignment Tools are desirable for allowing children to square and to cone their wheel hubs. The present art further allows a reduction in friction between a hub and a car, and a more precise alignment of a wheel with the track. Hubs finished by the Hub Conditioning and Alignment Tool make faster cars.
Akin to the present invention, reaming tools are known in the prior art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,797,055 to Greene discloses a tool for removing light bulb bases and cleaning light bulb sockets. However, the Greene '055 patent does not use sandpaper as an abrasive, and has further drawbacks of no ends to square and to cone a wheel placed upon an end.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,427,477 to Weiss discloses a tool for calibrating and deburring pipe ends. However, the Weiss '477 patent does not cone a hub, does not use sand paper, and additionally does not fit the entire head within a pipe.
Similarly, Patent Application 2003/0019665 to Horton discloses a reamer tool that removes accumulations of material from well piping. However, the Horton '665 application does not operate under hand power, and cannot cone a hub.
Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 5,359,818 to Costa discloses a hand tool and methods of constructing and utilizing the same that extends sandpaper along a blade to sand narrow places. However, the Costa '818 patent does not square and does not cone a hub, and cannot sand upon both ends of the handle.
Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 5,020,221 to Nelson discloses a pipe chamfer and deburring tool where a blade scrapes and cuts off burrs. However, the Nelson '221 patent does not cone the end of a pipe, and cannot insert the tool within a hole for reaming.
Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 915,325 to Bartol discloses a pipe-threading tool that expands to fix a head while turning a die about the head. However, the Bartol '325 patent does not square and does cone an end of a pipe, and cannot pull the head to ream a pipe.
Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 930,695 to Royle discloses a holder for grinding routing cutters that releasably grasps a cutter. However, the Royle '695 patent does not have a tool at both ends, and cannot cone a hub if the cutter were inserted into a hub.
Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 3,640,637 to Merz discloses an adjustable machine reamer that finishes holes and tubes. However, the Merz '637 patent does not finish the exterior of a tube, and cannot square or cone a hub.
Lastly, U.S. Pat. No. 4,091,525 to Karasiewicz et al. discloses a reamer for fine reaming of ports. However, the Karasiewicz '525 patent does not square or cone the ends of a port, and has the additional deficiency of requiring external power applied to the shank.
While the above-described devices fulfill their respective, particular objectives and requirements, the aforementioned patents do not describe a Hub Conditioning and Alignment Tool that finishes the hubs of wheels. The Greene '055 and Weiss '477 patents make no provision for using sandpaper and to square and to cone hubs. The Horton '665 application and Karasiewicz '525 patent require external power to operate. While the Costa '818 and Bartol '325 patents do not square and cone hubs. The Nelson '221 and Royle '695 patents cannot insert the tool for reaming and for coning respectively. And the Merz '637 patent makes no provision for finishing the exterior of a tube.
Therefore, a need exists for a new and improved Hub Conditioning and Alignment Tool that can be used for finishing the hubs of wheels. In this regard, the present invention substantially fulfills this need. In this respect, the Hub Conditioning and Alignment Tool according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in doing so provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of finishing the hubs of wheels.